[Marxism] Sri Lanka: A nightmare for Tamils
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ash Pemberton When Tamil asylum seeker Dayan Anthony was deported back to Sri Lanka by the Australian government last month, his immediate arrest and interrogation did little to allay fears he would not face harassment from authorities. His subsequent government-arranged press conference appeared to be staged for the benefit of the Sri Lankan and Australian governments. After 14 hours in custody and flanked by government officials, Anthony said: “Sri Lanka has become the safest place on the Earth after the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] was wiped out from the country. I did not face any type of harassment at the hands of Sri Lankan authorities after I returned to the country.” Such a statement is incredible given the many reports of human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government, especially after the its victory over the LTTE that ended the civil war in 2009. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51812 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Reflection on the defections in Syria
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The same thing keeps being stated - with nothing new offered to changeviews of many on this list - of this current tragic bloody conflict in Syria.He practicaly states that a U. S. military intervention would be awelcomed development - by the sender of this email to a Marxist list!And who cares on this List about the privileged Syrian generals and diplomatswho have jumped ship. They are not revolutionaires, just fearful officialswho would prefer a stable Syria under capitalist rule. I just want to respond to three points below made in that email - that Iincluded: 1) The popular opposition is certainly very sectarian - just the opposite that was stated! We have seen the flags and banners depicting not a revolutionary left leadership and influence, but a right wing Sunni jihadists dominated religious based movement and force! 2) While the Al-assad regime is certainly dictatorial - it is ridiculous to imply that the whole Syrian people are rising up and actively supporting the rebel fighters. Most Syrians are notactively fighting and are just trying to go about their regular dailylives. The rebels are small in numbers, even if it is true many Syriansoldiers do not relish attacking civilian areas and the military rankand file are divided on their loyalty to the government. 3) The writer concludes his email by deploring the bombing of oldstructures in Damascus (and we assume elsewhere as well) -but what would happen if the U. S. military did actively engage and attack the Syrian military positions - would this not createeven larger amounts of structural damage to these old structuresthe writer was so concerned about? Rhetoric will not deflect the facts on the ground and the forces reallyinvolved. The writer keeps stretching the reality, to fit what does notexist. The FSA is not a left led revolutionary force - but led by religiousjihadists. The FSA is not made up of the different ethnic religious groupsin representative numbers. Most Syrians would prefer the Al-assad government to leave power - butnot necessarily want a Sunni jihadists Sharia Law government instead. The bloody tragedy continues in Syria - it is nothing to be happy aboutand the relationship of forces reflects a deepening religious sectarian dividewith increasing conflict that will not end - no matter what the outcomeof Al-assad in his remaining in power, in what appears sadly a possiblereligious based civil war, with many fleeing refugees from the religious and ethnic losing side.I also disagree with those who state the U. S. government forces arenot actively intervening in Syria. We continue to witness a corporateowned media promoting the rebels and manuevering to gain influencewith their leadership. Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 20:58:17 -0700 From: clayc...@gmail.com Subject: Reflection on the defections in Syria The popular opposition to the Assad regime has from the very beginning been non-sectarian, and while it has been majority Sunni, as is Syria, it has had wide support among Christians, Shiite and Alawite from the beginning. A small number of foreign jihadists have come to Syria to make mischief. The opposition has received some support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The truth is that the Syrian people have revolted against the dictatorship. After many months they have been forced to go over to armed struggle by the regime's violence. The Free Syrian Army is truly a people's army made up of defectors from the state apparatus of repression The oldest living city in the world, Damascus, and others almost as old, are being destroyed by bombardment because the Assad regime doesn't dare send in ground forces they know will only swell the ranks of the FSA. Along with thousand of lives destroyed, some of the oldest structures built by humanity on this planet are being reduced to rubble. In Solidarity, Clay Claiborne Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] 'Blustering jingoism': Morrissey causes controversy with something not racist. this time
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Morrissey has a long, long record of headline-generating controversial statements. In more recent years, these have increasingly leaned to the decidely racist (Chinese people were subhumans due to their treatment of animals being the worst) -- a sign of the former Smiths singer's constant downward slide in all spheres. It wasn't always as bad as that -- times gone past he would generate outrage with comments such asthe sorrow of Brighton [bombing by the IRA] is that Thatcher escaped unscathed. And seems every now and then, he still manages comes out with something no one else will say that actually needed to be said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/06/morrissey-olympic-games The full text of the letter to members of his True to You fanclub reads: I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the 'dazzling royals', laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought. As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP. -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Lenin on pure social revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Reading many of the critical comments on the on-going Syrian Revolution I can't help being reminded of Lenin's criticism of Karl Radek on the 1916 Rising in Dublin: To imagine that social revolution is conceivable without revolts by small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts by a section of the petty bourgeoisie with all its prejudices, without a movement of the politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against oppression by the landowners, the church, and the monarchy, against national oppression, etc.-to imagine all this is to repudiate social revolution. So one army lines up in one place and says, “We are for socialism”, and another, somewhere else and says, “We are for imperialism”, and that will he a social revolution! Only those who hold such a ridiculously pedantic view could vilify the Irish rebellion by calling it a “putsch”. Whoever expects a “pure” social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is. Of course, there's no guarantee that any revolutionary upheaval will lead to victory for the most radical anti-capitalist forces. And we shouldn't forget that the revolutionary process opened up in 1916 ended up 7 years later in the victory of clerical reactionary forces who introduced the carnival of reaction that James Connolly predicted would be the result of the partition of Ireland - a carnival of reaction that still casts its baleful influence on Irish politics. But that doesn't devalue the revolutionary struggles of the intervening years. As Brecht said: If you fight, you may lose. But if you don't fight, you've already lost! Einde O'Callaghan --- Nutzen Sie freenet Mail optimal angepasst für Ihr iPhone, Android oder Nokia Handy auch von unterwegs. Alle Infos und Download unter http://mail.freenet.de/mobile-email/index.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] LIBERTY AND PROPERTY By ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (new from Verso)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == LIBERTY AND PROPERTY: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT By ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD Published 20th FEBRUARY 2012 --- “Immensely impressive, bold and erudite ... Meiksins Wood‘s conclusions are undeniably nuanced, challenging and important ... This book ought to be compulsory reading for us all.” – TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=404110sectioncode=26 --- The formation of the modern state, the rise of capitalism, the Renaissance and Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment have all been attributed to the “early modern” period. Nearly everything about its history remains controversial, but one thing is certain: it left a rich andprovocative legacy of political ideas unmatched in Western history. The concepts of liberty, equality, property, human rights and revolution born in those turbulent centuries continue to shape, and to limit, political discourse today. Assessing the work and background of figures such as Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Spinoza, the Levellers, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, ELLEN WOOD vividly explores the ideas of the canonical thinkers, not as philosophical abstractions but as passionately engaged responses to the social conflicts of their day. --- Praise for CITIZENS TO LORDS: http://www.versobooks.com/books/972-citizens-to-lords “MEIKSINS WOOD is a rare breed – an academic with the sole of a storyteller. Highly recommended” – MORNING STAR http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/64458 “A challenging analysis, which successfully integrates theory with historical changes. The clarity of the writing makes her account readily accessible to any reader ready to engage a fresh approach to the history of political theory.” – Sheldon Wolin “Few historians of comparative political thought are in the same league as Ellen Wood, who surveys the whole sweep of ancient and medieval thinkers with equal magisterial brilliance of insight.” – Professor Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge --- ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, is the author of many books, including DEMOCRACY AGAINST CAPITALISM and, with Verso, THE PRISTINE CULTURE OF CAPITALISM, THE ORIGIN OF CAPITALISM, PEASANT-CITIZEN AND SLAVE, CITIZENS TO LORDS, EMPIRE OF CAPITAL and LIBERTY AND PROPERTY. --- ISBN: 9781844677528/ US$26.95 / £16.99 / 336 pages --- For more information or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1043-liberty-and-property --- Academics can request an inspection copy. For further information please go to: http://www.versobooks.com/pg/desk-copies - Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com Sign up for the Verso mailing list: https://www.versobooks.com/users/sign_up Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooks Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] LIBERTY AND PROPERTY By ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (new fromVerso)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == MEIKSINS WOOD is a rare breed - an academic with the sole of a storyteller. Highly recommended - MORNING STAR. Does that mean she puts her foot in her mouth? LIBERTY AND PROPERTY: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT By ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD Published 20th FEBRUARY 2012 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] A Critique of the Dark Knight Rises
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.workers.org/2012/08/06/we-dont-need-superheroes/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] LIBERTY AND PROPERTY By ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (new fromVerso)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Or it means she makes the road by talking On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:06 AM, Richard Fidler rfidle...@sympatico.cawrote: MEIKSINS WOOD is a rare breed - an academic with the sole of a storyteller. Highly recommended - MORNING STAR. Does that mean she puts her foot in her mouth? Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Lenin on pure social revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Love this quote -- and Einde's addendum to it. On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 4:03 AM, Einde O'Callaghan eind...@freenet.dewrote: Reading many of the critical comments on the on-going Syrian Revolution I can't help being reminded of Lenin's criticism of Karl Radek on the 1916 Rising in Dublin: To imagine that social revolution is conceivable without revolts by small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts by a section of the petty bourgeoisie with all its prejudices, without a movement of the politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against oppression by the landowners, the church, and the monarchy, against national oppression, etc.-to imagine all this is to repudiate social revolution. So one army lines up in one place and says, “We are for socialism”, and another, somewhere else and says, “We are for imperialism”, and that will he a social revolution! Only those who hold such a ridiculously pedantic view could vilify the Irish rebellion by calling it a “putsch”. Whoever expects a “pure” social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is. Of course, there's no guarantee that any revolutionary upheaval will lead to victory for the most radical anti-capitalist forces. And we shouldn't forget that the revolutionary process opened up in 1916 ended up 7 years later in the victory of clerical reactionary forces who introduced the carnival of reaction that James Connolly predicted would be the result of the partition of Ireland - a carnival of reaction that still casts its baleful influence on Irish politics. But that doesn't devalue the revolutionary struggles of the intervening years. As Brecht said: If you fight, you may lose. But if you don't fight, you've already lost! Einde O'Callaghan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The ‘Implications’ of Paul Baran
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I haven't had time yet to read the whole essay by critiqueofcrisistheory, but I skipped to the end for the conclusion -- where he claims that Baran et al. believed the working class in imperialist countries were hopelessly bought off and that's why the MR crew were Maoists. Is that an accurate assessment in general of their beliefs? Does the newly-unearthed document have anything specific to say about that? And more importantly, does the continuation of their legacy in John Bellamy Foster's economics writing maintain this position? On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 9:30 PM, Mike Treen m...@unite.org.nz wrote: In its July-August 2012 issue, Monthly Review has published a new document entitled “Some Theoretical Implications,” written by Paul Baran, which was originally intended to be a chapter of “Monopoly Capital.”... Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: Syria divides the Arab left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE August 2012 Syria divides the Arab left http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft Middle East, revolt and its reactions The violence deepens and spreads. Yet unlike Egypt and Tunisia, the Syrian revolt has not had unanimous support from the Arab left. There is a split between those who sympathise with the protestors? demands and those who fear foreign interference, both political and military by Nicolas Dot-Pouillard Last August the Lebanese leftwing nationalist daily, *Al-Akhbar,* went through its first crisis since its launch in the summer of 2006 (1http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft#nb1). Managing editor Khaled Saghieh left the paper he had helped set up, because of its coverage of the Syrian crisis. Saghieh denounced the paper?s lack of support for the popular uprising that began in March 2011. *Al-Akhbar* has never denied its political sympathies with Hizbullah, one of Bashar al-Assad?s chief allies in the region, or hidden the fact that it prefers dialogue between the Damascus government and a section of the opposition to the fall of Assad?s regime. The paper has given a voice to certain members of the Syrian opposition, including Salameh Kaileh, a Syrian-Palestinian Marxist intellectual who was arrested this April by the security services. In June an article by Amal Saad-Ghorayeb (2http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft#nb2) provoked dissension within the paper?s English online version. The Lebanese commentator placed herself firmly behind the Damascus regime, and criticised supporters of a ?third way? ? those who denounce the regime while warning against western military intervention on the Libyan model. The same month another *Al-Akhbar English* journalist, Max Blumenthal, announced he was leaving in an article criticising ?Assad apologists? within the editorial staff (3http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft#nb3 ). *Al-Akhbar*?s crisis is symptomatic of the debate dividing the Arab left, ideologically and strategically. Some continue to support the Syrian regime in the name of the struggle against Israel and resistance to imperialism. Others stand staunchly with the opposition, in the name of revolution and the defence of democratic rights. Still others support a middle way between showing solidarity (from a distance) with the protestors? demands for freedom, and rejecting foreign interference: they advocate some kind of national reconciliation. The Syrian crisis is making the Arab left ? whether strictly Communist, tending towards Marxist, leftwing nationalist, radical or moderate ? seem in disarray. There is little unequivocal support for the Assad clan, and few people are calling for the regime to carry on as it is; but unconditional supporters of the revolution do not seem to be in the majority either. Most of them are on the far left of the political spectrum, usually Trotskyist (the Socialist Forum in Lebanon, the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt) or Maoist (the Democratic Way in Morocco). They have links with sections of the opposition, such as Ghayath Naisse?s Syrian Revolutionary Left. Since spring 2011 they have taken part in occasional demonstrations in front of Syrian embassies and consulates in their own countries. There are also some independent leftwing intellectuals who support insurrection, like the Lebanese historian Fawwaz Traboulsi (4http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft#nb4). They demand the fall of the regime, and rule out dialogue. Even though they champion peaceful popular protest, they believe the rebels have the right to resort to force of arms. Far left supporters of revolution distance themselves from the Syrian National Council (SNC) (5http://mondediplo.com/2012/08/04syrialeft#nb5), one of the main opposition coalitions, because they believe its links with countries such as Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia could compromise the independence of the popular movement. A prudent distance Part of the radical left, though denouncing the Assad regime and calling for its fall, is wary of the support the Gulf monarchies are giving to the Syrian revolutionaries; equally, it dares not subscribe fully to the anti-Assad discourse of the ?international community?, especially the US. But this anti-imperialist reflex does not take precedence over support for revolution: what counts is the internal situation in Syria, and the principle of popular uprising, as it did in Tunisia and Egypt. But the majority of the Arab left are maintaining a prudent distance from the Syrian uprising. They condemn its militarisation, which they say only benefits radical Islamist groups and the foreign fighters flocking to Syria. They criticise the sectarianism of the
[Marxism] Kim Scipes reviews new history of Sojourner Truth Organization
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[Marxism] Common People: Class And The 80s
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In the 1970s it was unusual to see wealthy families on television. The Jeffersons with their deluxe apartment in the sky, the occasional rich couple flitting over to Fantasy Island or booking a cruise on The Love Boat—these were the exceptions. But as the economy accelerated, mass culture was suddenly inundated with images of affluence. The wave hit around 1981, as the economy slowly recovered from the stagnant wages and inflation of the 1970s. Rabbit Angstrom, John Updike's scampering everyman, began to make serious money on his appreciating property and selling Toyotas on his father-in-law's lot in Rabbit is Rich; Joan Collins joined the cast of Dynasty as the splendid and venomous Alexis; and the second edition of The Official Preppy Handbook came out, gently mocking but also instructing a peculiar subculture of well-coiffed, pastel-hue wearing teenagers who wanted to look as if they summered on Cape Cod and worked on Wall Street. full: http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/common-people-class-and-the-80s#more-133638 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] On Defections and Developments in Syria: PBS NewsHour Interview with Bassam Haddad and David Lesch
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/6771/on-defections-and-developments-in-syria_pbs-newsho On Defections and Developments in Syria: PBS NewsHour Interview with Bassam Haddad and David Lesch The following interview was conducted by Margert Warner on PBS's NewsHour. It aired live on Monday 6 August 2012, and featured Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad and Professor David Lesch. The interview primarily discussed the wave of recent defections and their significance (or lack thereof) in the ongoing struggle between the Syrian regime and various opposition forces. An interview transcript is available below the video. Transcript Margaret Warner: And for more on all of this, I'm joined by two scholars with new books on Syria. Bassam Haddad directs the Middle East Studies Department at George Mason University. His new book is Business Networks in Syria. And David Lesch is a professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Tex. He interviewed Bashar al-Assad several times between 2004 and 2009. His new book is Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad. Welcome to you both. David Lesch, beginning with you, what significance do you see in these latest defections, coming on top of earlier ones? David Lesch: Well, they are serious blows to the regime, as you said, coming on top of earlier defections, as well as the impression that the rebels on the ground are making military inroads against the regime. However, you know, the office of the prime minister is not a very powerful position in Syria under Bashar al-Assad. It is mostly an administrative post. It's been a disposable one since the beginning of the uprising. But perception is most important here. And, as we all know, perception is oftentimes more important than reality. And the perception is that the regime is on the defensive, that it could be crumbling with these increasing defections. And if many of the Syrians who are viewing this also see it as crumbling, especially those sitting on the fence, then you could have a cascade of defections, which will undermine the foundation of the regime. Margaret Warner: Bassam Haddad, what would you add to that, the significance, for instance, that he was Sunni? Bassam Haddad: Well, that is, at this point, not as significant. The main point about the defection of the prime minister is that the office of the prime minister, as my colleague said, has for decades been an administrative office. And it wasn't connected and is not connected to any serious threads of power. So that, in and of itself, makes it less relevant than many people might assume. The second point is that the conflict itself right now has descended into a purely military conflict, which means that such defections will in actuality have very little effect on the manner in which the conflict proceeds. But it will actually open the door for more defections that many people actually have contemplated for some time but now will probably actually carry out. Margaret Warner: David Lesch, you have been close to this circle, or you had some entree because of your interviews with the president. Who is in this inner circle, the one with -- the one -- the circle that really has power? And is it mostly Alawite, the sect that -- the Shiite sort of splinter sect that Assad is from? David Lesch:It is. It is mostly Alawite. There are still some Sunnis who are supporting the regime, particularly in the business community. But in the inner circle -- I mean, ever since the regime chose a security solution to this from -- from the beginning of the uprising, the military security apparatus ascended in power even more so than it already had been, including Bashar's brother Maher al-Assad and many of the other particularly Alawite generals in the military security apparatus. So, it is a very opaque ruling structure that has been difficult to penetrate even by people on the scene for many, many years. But I think since the crisis began, it's getting tighter and tighter and tighter, smaller and much more Alawite, with these Sunni defections. Margaret Warner: And, so, Mr. Haddad, do you think that the president can control the country with a ruling circle that is becoming primary, almost dominantly Alawite, which is -- they are only 10 percent of the population. Bassam Haddad: The picture is not that stark. It's also important to recognize that still at the top levels in the military and security apparatus, there are still some Sunnis. And in society, there are still large pockets, if not very large pockets, of support, not necessarily for the Assad regime, but for a prevention of a fall into the abyss. What a lot of the reporting I think has been ignoring, especially from the
[Marxism] Browse|Movies |Upload,Obama That I Used To Know
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Re: [Marxism] LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: Syria divides the Arab left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/7/12 9:14 AM, stansfield smith wrote: LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE August 2012 Syria divides the Arab left The one thing I can't get about Stansfield Smith (and people like Yoshie Furuhashi, Walter Lippmann, and Fred Feldman who are no longer with us) is how fixated they are in proselytizing for the axis of good. Does Stanfield get up in the morning with a thought going on in his brain like a Times Square neon sign: How do I make al-Assad look good? Frankly, if I ever found myself obsessing to this degree over a single issue to the exclusion of broader questions such as climate change, culture, or the history of capitalism, I'd probably make an appointment with a psychiatrist to get something like Prozac to shake me out of a political version of OCD. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Did Churchill cause the Bengal famine in 1944?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This comes up now again on the list as an issue of the minuses of Western Allies in terms of the US and UK being better or worse than the Nazis. I've been reading up on the millions-dead famine in Bengal. I hadn't known there was even a debate about this. I was very surprised. We have no one here on this list defending Churchill, of course, but yet it's important to read counter-points to what is commonly accepted on the left to wit: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/966-without-churchill-indias-famine-would-have-been-worse This piece argues that contextually, Churchill (and the British) were not responsible for this famine and that in fact the author argues, he greatly mitigated it and effectively ended it. Of course the author here doesn't answer the charge (and fact) that Churchill ordered the shipments of grain away from India. Nevertheless, make for interesting history. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Did Churchill cause the Bengal famine in 1944?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Straits Times (Singapore) December 12, 2010 Sunday Churchill, through a glass, darkly; British wartime leader depicted as imperialist causing 1943 Bengal famine deaths in book BYLINE: Ravi Velloor, South Asia Bureau Chief New Delhi: Which post-war child of the 20th century has not heard of Winston Churchill in the English- speaking world? The oratory that lifted an entire people, the doggedness that gave Britons their bulldog mojo and helped wear down Hitler, the Beefeater image of the titan burnished with a personal fondness for liquid lunches and meat. Walk into Singapore's colonial- era Tanglin Club and the fine dining area, most appropriately, is called the Churchill Room. Britain's wartime prime minister, half a century after his death, continues to be his nation's most famous son, glowering at the rest of humanity in that definitive picture shot for Life magazine by the incomparable Canadian Yousuf Karsh. Now comes a book that strips the British lionheart of some of that aura and portrays a shockingly prejudiced, deeply racist imperialist whose callous actions - and deliberate lack of attention - probably caused the deaths of more than three million people in the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, when India was still the British Empire's crown jewel and responsibility. In the 352-page book, Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire And The Ravaging Of India During World War II, author and researcher Madhusree Mukerjee, 49, documents the thoughts and actions of Churchill and a close aide, Lord Cherwell, a physicist and Fellow of the Royal Society whose theories of eugenics fed the former's own baleful prejudices. Churchill's love of empire is well documented. Indeed, his indignant outbursts against Mahatma Gandhi - that Middle Temple lawyer masquerading as a 'half -naked fakir' and sitting down to negotiate freedom with His Majesty's representative - have been largely viewed with affection. If anything, they add to the aura of a man whose charm owes in part to his unswerving belief in king and country. But backstage he was much worse, apparently. As the Indian independence movement progressed, Churchill came to loathe Indians and particularly the country's majority Hindus. He fed Muslim nationalism, deliberately worked to widen communal fault lines on the sub-continent and encouraged the creation of Pakistan as a breakaway state from independent India. Perfectly fecund himself - producing no fewer than five children between 1909 and 1922 - he would rail against Indians for bringing the 1943 famine upon themselves by 'breeding like rabbits'. And, as the famine progressed, with millions starving to death and women in respectable homes prostituting themselves in a desperate attempt to keep their kitchen fires going, he was unmoved. The Japanese Occupation of Burma in 1942 cut off rice imports to India. Churchill's War Cabinet insisted that India absorb the loss and, what is more, export rice to countries that could no longer get it from South-east Asia. As India's war expenditure rose tenfold - a war it fought on behalf of Britain - the government printed paper money, stoking hyperinflation. In January 1943, he ordered merchant ships operating in the Indian Ocean to be moved to the Atlantic, to build up Britain's stockpile of food, all the while insisting that India export rice. Then he adopted a scorched earth policy to make sure the advancing Japanese had no access to India's rice, moved grain to Ceylon and sent shiploads of Indian grain to shore up food reserves in the Balkans. The writer George Orwell, then a war propagandist targeting India for the BBC, resigned in disgust. In its finest hour, The Statesman of Calcutta, edited by British hands, rigorously chronicled the travails of famine. Several of Churchill's aides, including secretary of state for India, Lord Amery, and the Viceroy Linlithgow, pleaded on Bengal's behalf. But Churchill enquired why, if the famine was so bad, Gandhi was still alive. The famine eased in December when rice paddies were cultivated in Bengal, but by then millions had died. It was a catastrophe that would exceed the travails of the bloody Partition to come four years later, when more than a million perished in communal rioting as Hindus and Sikhs evicted from the new Pakistan met Muslims going the other way. Ms Mukerjee, based in Frankfurt, Germany, seems at first glance a most unlikely intellect to take apart this giant figure of history. Born in Bengal and educated in India and the United States, where she earned a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago, she is a writer who served on the board of editors of Scientific American magazine. Her eclectic
[Marxism] Being Sikh in America
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/being-sikh-in-america/ India Ink - Notes on the World's Largest Democracy August 7, 2012, 1:22 am Being Sikh in America By AMARDEEP SINGH On Sunday, my wife and I were having a quiet brunch with friends at home in Pennsylvania when the phone started ringing. First my parents called from their home in Maryland. Then a cousin called from India. Have you seen what's on CNN? There's been a shooting at a gurdwara in Wisconsin I felt a familiar emptiness. I had felt the same way after the morning of September 11, 2001. Then, as now, Sikhs in the United States faced a common problem: many Americans presume that all men in turbans are Muslims. Just a few days after 9/11, a man named Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot down in Arizona in just such a case of mistaken religious identity. Other attacks followed in the coming months. Many Sikhs initially reacted with a blend of bewilderment and outrage at the seeming injustice. And yet that response -- we didn't do anything, we don't deserve this -- was not adequate, even if understandable. No community deserves this type of hostility. Would it be any less tragic if the victims in Wisconsin had been Muslims gathering for Friday prayers? On Monday, the shooter in Wisconsin was identified as Wade Michael Page, a U.S. Army veteran reportedly associated with white supremacist groups. Surely more details and clarity on the shooter's motives will emerge in the days to come, but at this point it seems reasonable to assume that he targeted Sikhs because they looked like enemies of his own twisted version of the American ideal. In the fall of 2001, I had just started a new job as an assistant professor in the English department at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In the weeks after the terrorist attacks, I felt intense hostility whenever I was away from the protected space of the college campus. The hostility wasn't simply a matter of small-town xenophobia; that fall, I also heard ugly taunts and insults, some threatening violence, on the streets of Philadelphia and even in New York. I felt spooked, and like many other Sikhs I put a bumper sticker on my car with a U.S. flag that announced me as a Sikh American. About a year later, everyone started to calm down and I put my feelings from that first year behind me. (And yes, I eventually took the bumper sticker off the car.) To its credit, the Sikh community realized very quickly that it wouldn't do to simply say, Don't hate me, I'm not a Muslim. Sikhs got organized shortly after 9/11, forming advocacy organizations, chief among them the Sikh Coalition. These groups were emphatic that they opposed hate crimes directed against any group based on religious hostility. To spread awareness, Sikh groups also distributed educational materials and bought advertisements to try to reduce ignorance about the Sikh turban. In light of the Wisconsin shooting, many Sikhs are now suggesting that we renew our educational efforts about Sikhs and Sikhism. These are well-meaning and valuable efforts, but here's the thing: I am not sure that the shooter would have acted any differently even if he had known the difference. As I have experienced it, the Sikh turban reflects a form of difference that can provoke some Americans to react quite viscerally. Yes, ignorance plays a part and probably amplifies that reaction. But it may also be that visible marks of religious difference like the Sikh turban are lightning rods for this hostility in ways that don't depend on accurate recognition. I am not sure why the reaction can be so visceral -- perhaps because wearing a turban is at once so intimately personal and so public? Walking around Philadelphia waving, say, an Iranian flag probably wouldn't provoke quite the same reaction. A flag is abstract -- a turban, as something worn on the body, is much more concrete and it therefore poses a more palpable symbol for angry young men looking for someone to target. Whether or not that target was actually the right one was beside the point for the Oak Creek shooter. I am by no means suggesting Sikhs not wear turbans to avoid hostility. But I also don't think we should fool ourselves that all hostility will be resolved purely by education, nor should we presume that this shooter suffered only from ignorance. As a white supremacist, it seems safe to suppose, what mattered to the shooter was that he hated difference -- and saw, in the Sikh gurdwara at Oak Creek, a target for that hatred. I am at a loss right now as to how to understand this tragedy, or how I might explain it to my 5-year old son (we haven't told him about it and don't plan to). I was born in Queens, after my parents
[Marxism] Mourning Victims, Sikhs Lament Being Mistaken for Radicals or Militants
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times August 6, 2012 Mourning Victims, Sikhs Lament Being Mistaken for Radicals or Militants By ETHAN BRONNER Sikhs in New York and across the country on Monday mourned the deaths in the shooting rampage at one of their temples outside Milwaukee, and some said the killings revived bitter memories of the period just after the Sept. 11 attacks when their distinctive turbans and beards seemed to trigger harassment and violence by people who wrongly assumed that they were militant Muslims. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to a Sikh temple in Queens and praised Sikhs for their contributions to the community. The mayor vowed to maintain security for New Yorkers of all faiths. Nancy Powell, the American ambassador to India, where the vast majority of the world’s 25 million Sikhs live, visited a temple in New Delhi and expressed horror and solidarity. Elsewhere, Sikhs reflected on the uncomfortable fact that because their appearance sets them apart, they are sometimes mistakenly singled out as targets. Observant Sikh men often wear turbans and do not cut their hair or shave their beards. “I have been called Osama bin Laden walking down the street, because in the popular imagination a turban is associated with bin Laden and Al Qaeda,” said Prabhjot Singh, who works in the high-tech industry near San Francisco. “But 99 percent of the people who wear turbans in the United States are Sikhs, so they face a disproportionate number of acts of discrimination.” In collecting data about post-Sept. 11 hate crimes, the Justice Department does not draw a distinction between Sikhs and Muslims, an entirely separate religion. A report from October says, “In the first six years after 9/11, the department investigated more than 800 incidents involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against persons perceived to be Muslim or Sikh, or of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian origin.” Sikhism, a monotheistic faith that emerged from the Punjab region of India about 500 years ago, is one of the world’s youngest major religions. It emphasizes self-reliance and individual responsibility and draws its tenets from the words of 10 gurus. The last guru, named Singh, as are many Sikhs today, died in 1708. More than many other religious practitioners, Sikh men wear a uniform: unshorn hair and a small comb covered by a turban; a steel bracelet; and, for a certain group of initiates, a sword known as a kirpan. The religion is known for promoting women to positions of power, and has championed social justice. British colonialists in India tended to favor the Sikhs, viewing them as more Western than the Hindus and Muslims, who made up the vast majority of the population there. “Historically in India there has been tension between the Sikhs and the ruling elite, whether Muslim or Hindu,” said Harpreet Singh, a Sikh who is finishing a doctorate in South Asian religions at Harvard and helped found the Sikh Coalition in 2001 to help Sikhs stand up for their rights. “The gurus didn’t want to pay the non-Muslim tax. Sikhs grew in numbers and became a political force.” The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh from Punjab, and on Monday he expressed sorrow and condemnation for the killings of six people at a Wisconsin temple on Sunday by a man who appeared to have ties to a white supremacist movement. The gunman was killed by the police. Other recent acts of violence against Sikhs — the defacing in February of a temple in Michigan, the beating of a cabdriver in California in late 2010 — involved mistaken references to Al Qaeda or militant Islam. The first post-Sept. 11 killing classified as a hate crime took place in Arizona, where a Sikh was gunned down by a man who is now serving a life sentence. In the Jackson Heights section of Queens on Monday, Sikh men in russet, black and peach-colored turbans swept leaves from the fronts of stores selling saris and gold jewelry, and offered discounts to passers-by. Many talked about the Wisconsin rampage. “Very sad. I was shocked,” said Harbinder Singh, who works at a grocery. “We have not done any harm to anyone. Why are we targeted? Maybe some other religions have done harm. They think that we are the same. Maybe that’s the reason.” Inder Mohan Singh, 73, who owns a Western Union location, lives in Woodbury on Long Island and has been in the United States for 40 years. “I’m just an ordinary man, just like other people, just like other Americans,” he said. “I should cut my hair? No one is going to change. I’m wearing the turban. I have to do it. I don’t want to say, ‘No, now I’m not going to wear my turban because of this man.’ ” He added: “This is our religion. We cannot leave our religion for
Re: [Marxism] Lenin on pure social revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Einde O'Callaghan wrote: 'Of course, there's no guarantee that any revolutionary upheaval will lead to victory for the most radical anti-capitalist forces. And we shouldn't forget that the revolutionary process opened up in 1916 ended up 7 years later in the victory of clerical reactionary forces who introduced the carnival of reaction that James Connolly predicted would be the result of the partition of Ireland -- a carnival of reaction that still casts its baleful influence on Irish politics. But that doesn't devalue the revolutionary struggles of the intervening years.' But is not this sorry result in Ireland precisely why one should not have a romantic view of an opposition in Syria that brings together all sorts of elements, from socialists through democrats of various stripes to outright religious reactionaries? Should we not be looking at precisely what the opposition in Syria represents, what currents there are within it and which ones should be supported, rather than condemning the opposition in toto as a reactionary puppet of the big powers, or conversely cheer-leading it in an utterly uncritical manner? Paul F Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: Syria divides the Arab left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Lou P wrote: 'Does Stanfield get up in the morning with a thought going on in his brain like a Times Square neon sign: How do I make al-Assad look good? Fair enough, but I wonder with some of our list members is whether they wake up with the thought: 'Now how can I present sundry jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood and assistance from Saudi Arabia and the big powers as not having a corrosive effect upon the anti-Assad struggle?' Paul F Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Did Churchill cause the Bengal famine in 1944?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From Ernest Mandel's The Meaning of the Second World War, chapter 12. The Nehru quotes are taken from Jawaharlal Nehur,The Discovery of India, London 1960, p. 463. ken h Nehru described these pressures graphically: 'With the fall of Penang and Singapore, and as the Japanese advanced in Malaya, there was an exodus of Indians and others and they poured into India ... Then followed the flood of refugees from Burma, hundreds of thousands of them, mostly Indians. The story of how they had been deserted by civil and other authorities and left to shift for themselves spread through India ... It was not the war that caused discrimination in treatment between Indian and British refugees ... Horrible stories of racial discrimination and suffering reached us, and as the famished survivors spread all over India, they carried those stories with them, creating a powerful effect on the Indian mind.' And even more precisely: 'In Eastern Bengal, in a panicky state of mind, in anticipation of an [Japanese] invasion, tens of thousands of river boats were destroyed That vast area was full of waterways and the only transport possible was by these boats. Their destruction isolated large communities, destroyed their means of livelihood and transport, and was one of the contributory causes of the Bengal famine.' (The 1943 Bengal famine cost 3,400,000 deaths according to a University of Calcutta study.) Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: Syria divides the Arab left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/7/12 12:20 PM, Paul Flewers wrote: Fair enough, but I wonder with some of our list members is whether they wake up with the thought: 'Now how can I present sundry jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood and assistance from Saudi Arabia and the big powers as not having a corrosive effect upon the anti-Assad struggle?' Is this a reference to Richard Seymour's reply to John Rees? Or perhaps Robin Yassin-Kassab's Blanket Thinkers? Oh, I think I know what it was, my crossposting of an interview with Bassam Haddad this morning that was filled with paean's to the Jihadists. So sorry. My bad. Bassam Haddad: What a lot of the reporting I think has been ignoring, especially from the West, is that Syria is falling apart not just as a regime, but as a country. And that is actually the biggest tragedy that I think is being shoved aside, in favor of focusing on cliche-ish things such as dictatorship and democracy in a situation where even if the Assad regime falls we are looking at a very, very tough process of reconstructing the country. And certain parties benefit, and these are the parties we should actually look at, including conservative Arab states, some European states, and, of course, the United States. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE: Syria divides the Arab left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/7/12 12:20 PM, Paul Flewers wrote: Lou P wrote: 'Does Stanfield get up in the morning with a thought going on in his brain like a Times Square neon sign: How do I make al-Assad look good? Fair enough, but I wonder with some of our list members is whether they wake up with the thought: 'Now how can I present sundry jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood and assistance from Saudi Arabia and the big powers as not having a corrosive effect upon the anti-Assad struggle?' One other thing, Paul, that you didn't seem to get. I think it is a bad practice to use Marxmail as a receptacle for a single-issue intervention. I try to set an example by covering a wide range of topics with my Jihadist apologetics only occupying perhaps one out of ten posts. I am not advocating that subscribers suppress their views, only that they think hard about what their role is here. If you think it is to expose the treachery of others because they don't follow Cuban or Venezuelan foreign policy initiatives, they are doing a disservice both to the list and to themselves. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] A note on the complexities of the Syrian uprising
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Brilliant. Richard does a great job of looking at the specifics of imperialist interventions (and lack thereof) -- and I say interventions plural because he distinguishes between different interests, and resulting different words and deeds, within that camp (as well as divergences between them and subimperialist powers, and within the latter as well). I'm a little uneasy with Richard's repeated use of the term principal contradiction, because of the way Maoists have abused it, but I think with a little explication we can see that his conclusion in this area are correct. To be specific: One source of resentment by the revolutionaries against Assad is the latter's failure to effectively or seriously oppose imperialist and Zionist oppression of Syria and of the region as a whole. So one could say the secondary contradiction of the regime v. working class dispute within Syria is also in part a product of the principal contradiction, i.e. the dispute between the Syrian nation (or the Arab Nation as a whole) and imperialism and Zionism. So while at the moment the battle is occurring primarily along the fault lines of this supposedly secondary contradiction, it is doing so as part of a decades-long principal contradiction between the nation and imperialism. Anyway to simplify matters and stop further reliance on these problematic terms, one need only look back to what Trotsky wrote about Spain, China and the Soviet Union, and the need (and right) of each country's masses to overthrow regimes which were sabotaging an effective fight against the bourgeoisie internally or externally, and that this might have to happen in the very darkest moments of the battle against those bourgeoisies. On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: Richard Seymour responds to John Rees http://www.leninology.com/**2012/08/a-note-on-** complexities-of-syrian.htmlhttp://www.leninology.com/2012/08/a-note-on-complexities-of-syrian.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Robert Hughes will be missed
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Cockburn, Vidal, and now Hughes... Hughes' *Nothing if not Critical* is an art education [and a writing education] in and of itself, and I highly recommend it. The Shock of the New and American Visions are both great TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByIlGYQxUMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTeDUqlasCw Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Lenin on pure social revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 07.08.2012 18:09, Paul Flewers wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Einde O'Callaghan wrote: 'Of course, there's no guarantee that any revolutionary upheaval will lead to victory for the most radical anti-capitalist forces. And we shouldn't forget that the revolutionary process opened up in 1916 ended up 7 years later in the victory of clerical reactionary forces who introduced the carnival of reaction that James Connolly predicted would be the result of the partition of Ireland -- a carnival of reaction that still casts its baleful influence on Irish politics. But that doesn't devalue the revolutionary struggles of the intervening years.' But is not this sorry result in Ireland precisely why one should not have a romantic view of an opposition in Syria that brings together all sorts of elements, from socialists through democrats of various stripes to outright religious reactionaries? Should we not be looking at precisely what the opposition in Syria represents, what currents there are within it and which ones should be supported, rather than condemning the opposition in toto as a reactionary puppet of the big powers, or conversely cheer-leading it in an utterly uncritical manner? That is, of course, the point I'm trying to make. Einde O'Callaghan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Chossudovsky: Towards A Soft Invasion? The Launching of a Humanitarian War against Syria
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/7/12 4:28 PM, stansfield smith wrote: Naval and air force deployments have already been announced by the British Ministry of Defense. According to London's news tabloids, quoting authoritative military sources; ...The escalating civil war [in Syria] made it increasingly likely that the West would be forced to step in. ( Daily Mail, July 24, 2012) The most worrisome thing is whether the USA will use the weapons of the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) against the Baathists. Alone among the left, Michel Chossudovsky, the professor emeritus who runs Global Research, has been sounding the alarm: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=vaaid=319 In Iraq, Iran and Syria, a devastating drought occurred in 1999. In Afghanistan, four years of drought in the years preceding the US led invasion in 2001, have led to the destruction of the peasant economy, leading to widespread famine. While there is no proof that these weather occurrences are the result of climatic warfare, Phillips Geophysics Lab, which is a partner in the HAARP project provides a course for military personnel at the Hanscom Air Force Base in Maryland, on Weather Modification Techniques. The course outline explicitly contemplates the triggering of storms, hurricanes, etc. for military use. --- I would also keep a sharp eye on the scattered remnants of the Occupy movement since they might reemerge as critical element on behalf of American imperialism given their history as our own colored revolution. Once again, alone on the left, Michel Chossudovsky has sounded the alarm: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=vaaid=27053 Several key organizations currently involved in The Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) movement played a significant role in The Arab Spring. Of significance, Anonymous, the social media hacktivist group, was involved in waging cyber-attacks on Egyptian government websites at the height of The Arab Spring.(http://anonops.blogspot.com, see also http://anonnews.org/) In May 2011, Anonymous waged cyberattacks on Iran and last August, it waged similar cyber-attacks directed against the Syrian Ministry Defense. These cyber-attacks were waged in support of the Syrian opposition in exile, which is largely integrated by Islamists. (See Syrian Ministry Of Defense Website Hacked By 'Anonymous', Huffington Post, August 8, 2011). The actions of Anonymous in Syria and Iran are consistent with the framework of the Colored Revolutions. They seek to demonize the political regime and create political instability. (For analysis on Syria's Opposition, see Michel Chossudovsky, SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO Humanitarian Intervention Global Research, May 3, 2011) --- Marxmail owes Stansfield Smith an enormous debt of gratitude for bringing our attention to this most remarkable and innovative thinker. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Correction: Did Churchill cause the Bengal famine in 1944?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == see Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Forgotten Indian Famine of World War II -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] A note on the complexities of the Syrian uprising
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Seymour: as far as we know the actual flow of weapons is very small and light, and is coming not from 'Western imperialism' (the US has absolutely refused to send weapons), but from the black markets and some from the Gulf states. I wonder what it's like to be so naïve? I'd cut Richard some slack, but it's already five days after we learned (e.g., http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE87 01OK20120802 ) that Obama earlier this year signed a secret finding authorizing support for the rebels, and LONG after anyone with two brain cells together knew that was happening (and long after the U.S. provision of communications gear to the rebels was openly acknowledged). Yes, the latest leak claims that The White House is for now apparently stopping short of giving the rebels lethal weapons, even as some U.S. allies do just that, but let's note the word apparently, also note the likelihood that the U.S. has provided assurances to its allies that it will gladly replace any weapons that they transfer to the rebels. As for the evidence that the actual flow of weapons is very small and light, as well as the claim that the US has absolutely refused to send weapons, in Richard's honor I'll go with my favorite Britishism: balderdash. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Cockburn and Vidal: A Dying Breed
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:56:05 -0400 Louis Proyect l...@panix.com writes: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/675.php I would agree with the author of that piece that the passings of Cockburn and Vidal represent the end of a certain tradition of acerbic and often elegant radical journalism - A tradition that can be traced back to Marx, and, I would assert, can be traced even further back to writers like Thomas Paine and William Cobbett. Cockburn and Vidal seem to have no obvious successors, with one possible exception, a person with the initials, R. S., but I'll say no more about that lest he get a swollen head and become completely insufferable. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Fast, Secure, NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband. Try it. http://www.netzero.net/?refcd=NZINTISP0512T4GOUT2 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Cockburn and Vidal: A Dying Breed
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, 7 Aug 2012 21:04:46 -0400 Jim Farmelant farmela...@juno.com wrote: I would agree with the author of that piece that the passings of Cockburn and Vidal represent the end of a certain tradition of acerbic and often elegant radical journalism - A tradition that can be traced back to Marx, and, I would assert, can be traced even further back to writers like Thomas Paine and William Cobbett. Way back. Martin Marprelate. A bit more recently, good ole Johnny Milton. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Glenn Greenwald drinks the anti-Syria Kool-Aid
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Aug 7, 2012, at 7:43 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: [snip] Can we GET proof any less convincing than that? I doubt it, but evidently it was enough for Glenn Greenwald to assert categorically that the Assad regime was the source of the bombing. [snip] No claim too preposterous when the bogeyman-du-jour is the object. But I never thought I'd see Glenn Greenwald succumbing to such nonsense. So here you criticize Greenwald for using evidence that doesn't pass (your) muster. OK, fair enough; I'm all for questioning evidence. Your counter-evidence, though, is even thinner, since it's based on a mere projection (X in the past has been done) of an assumption. (That is, you assume that the Assad gov't is being honest when it states the car-bomb attack on the military intelligence facility was done by opposition forces, as opposed to believing the SNC, which claims it was staged. But you don't *know* either way. For what it's worth (which honestly is probably not much), I think either are possible, with it slightly more likely that it was an attack by one of the opposition elements (and good for them, too!); and in that case, I think it equally likely that either the SNC is lying *or* didn't know about it beforehand because they are not in control of the opposition.) And precisely one post previous, you criticize Seymour for relying on evidence you think is weak. What do you provide to counter his claims? Let's see: On Aug 7, 2012, at 7:28 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: LONG after anyone with two brain cells together knew that was happening [snip] and let's note the word apparently, also note the likelihood that the U.S. has provided assurances to its allies that it will gladly replace any weapons that they transfer to the rebels. So, you counter his evidence-based argument (weak though the evidence may be), with a meditation on the word apparently and something you pull straight out of your ass. Eli, if you're going to add to the debate and convince anyone that the Assad regime--an erstwhile but open collaborator with and torturer for US imperialism--is something worth defending, something worth gunning down protesters in the street and killing them in their homes, then you've got to do better than that. soli, DCQ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] What's new at Links: Olympics, workers' sport, Quebec, Paul le Blanc on Paul Mason, Front de Gauche, Spain, Cuba, Mexico Thomas Sankara, Malaysia, State capitalism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What's new at Links: Olympics, workers' sport, Quebec, Paul le Blanc on Paul Mason, Front de Gauche, Spain, Cuba, Mexico Thomas Sankara, Malaysia, State capitalism * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to linkssocial...@gmail.com *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links. *Comments welcome on all articles *Return daily for new articles * * * Mike Marqusee at the Olympics: 'Individual excellence at the service of the nation-state and multinational capital' http://links.org.au/node/2975 /The Tommie Smith/John Carlos 'black power' salute of 1968 http://links.org.au/node/565 -- two medal winners overturning the symbolism, refusing to let their individual excellence serve the forces that degraded them and their people. / By *Mike Marqusee*, London August 4, 2012 -- I enjoyed my afternoon at the Olympics, sitting in my public lottery assigned £50 seat at the ExCel, with a fine view of the men's boxing. And I enjoyed it not least because I was finally able to watch the sport itself without the surrounding hype, the layers of commentary. For a moment there was only that pleasure special to sport: the spontaneity of a story being fashioned in front of your own eyes, once and once only (despite digital repeats), robustly itself and not pretending to be anything else. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2975 Quebec: 'Share Our Future' -- the CLASSE manifesto; CLASSE rep explains struggle (video) http://links.org.au/node/2972 /July 27, 2012 --//- Guillaume Legault is a leading member of Quebec's CLASSE, a radical student organisation at the forefront of a months-long student strike against tuition fee hikes. Legault toured Australia and New Zealand in July-August 2012 as a guest of the socialist youth organisation Resistance. Above is Legault's address to the Resistance national conference, held in Adelaide./ August 3, 2012 -- The following document is the manifesto of Quebec's militant student union, Coalition large de l'Association pour une solidarité syndicale (CLASSE). * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2972 Paul Le Blanc: Occupy, insurgencies and human nature: Paul Mason and/or Karl Marx http://links.org.au/node/2966 By *Paul Le Blanc* July 25, 2012 -- Paul Mason is one of the best journalists covering the global economy today. His book, /Live Working, Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global,/ is an essential resource for anyone concerned about the workers' struggle against oppression and for liberation in the past, present and future. I met him while I was in thick of Pittsburgh's G20 protests, which he was covering for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). I had already read his splendid book (which I was using in one of my courses) -- and his front-line television reportage of the protests and the realities generating them was outstanding. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2966 Another Olympics is possible: the socialist sports movements of the past http://links.org.au/node/2976 August 7, 2012 -- As Mike Marqusee points out in an article posted at /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/, the modern Olympic Games are a symbolic package: individual excellence at the service of the nation-state under the overlordship of multinational capital. Today, the domination of most sport by the capitalist corporations, crude nationalism and dog-eat-dog ideology is almost complete, occasionally challenged by the actions a few principled groups and individuals. But that was not always the case. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2976 France: The rise of the Left Front (Front de Gauche) -- a new force on the left http://links.org.au/node/2974 By *Murray Smith* August 2, 2012 -- The Left Front (Front de Gauche) emerged onto the political scene at the beginning of 2009. As the Left Front to Change Europe, it was established by three organisations -- the French Communist Party (PCF), the Left Party (PG, Parti de Gauche) and the Unitary Left (GU) -- with the aim of standing in the European elections of June 2009. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2974 Spain: Millions protest economic and political crisis; Audio: Spain's crisis, the popular fightback and its impact on Europe http://links.org.au/node/2973 J/uly 28, 2012 -- Dick Nichols,
Re: [Marxism] Chossudovsky: Towards A Soft Invasion? The Launching ofa Humanitarian War against Syria
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Surely this is meant as humor! - Jeff ... An Iraq-style shock and awe bombing campaign is, for practical reasons, not being contemplated: defence analysts warned that a force of at least 300,000 troops would be needed to carry out a full-scale intervention [in Syria]. Even then, this would face fierce resistance. ... (Ibid) At 13:28 07-08-12 -0700, stansfield smith wrote: Towards A Soft Invasion? The Launching of a Humanitarian War against Syria By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky The Obama administration . in support of opposition rebel forces on the ground. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Glenn Greenwald drinks the anti-Syria Kool-Aid
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == DCQ: So here you criticize Greenwald for using evidence that doesn't pass (your) muster. Evidence? No, an unsupported accusation by an anonymous activist does not qualify as evidence. There is no passing muster here, this doesn't even pass go. Your counter-evidence, though, is even thinner, since it's based on a mere projection (X in the past has been done) of an assumption. (That is, you assume that the Assad gov't is being honest when it states the car-bomb attack on the military intelligence facility was done by opposition forces, as opposed to believing the SNC, which claims it was staged. In the case of the funeral bombing, the article states that No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, so there is no question of believing the Assad govt. or anyone else as to who was responsible, nor did I accuse anyone (although I did doubt, and still do, that a car bomb was a weapon likely to be employed by government forces). However that's neither here nor there; the point of my post was to criticize Greenwald giving unquestioning credibility to the accusation by the anonymous activist, despite its complete lack of factual support. Perpetuating such speculation as the absolute truth to discredit an official enemy is something I expect of CNN or the U.S. government, but not Greenwald. As far as bombing a military intelligence facility, I'm not assuming anything about the Assad government. I'm simply using common sense. If the Assad government wanted to stage terrorist attacks to discredit the opposition, they could easily bomb a bus, or a market, or a mosque, or a thousand targets. The idea that they would bomb their own military intelligence headquarters is simply beyond preposterous. And as to my evidence in arguing against Richard Seymour, I believe decades of knowledge about the operation of the U.S. government and the CIA, combined with what we actually KNOW about what they are doing in Syria (communications equipment etc.) qualifies as evidence that far surpasses ritual denials by U.S. government spokespeople. If you don't share that opinion, perhaps you need to read a little more history. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Existentialism consistently proclaims that nothing can be known by man
Sartre, however, was no German reactionary. The question with him is the radical opposition between subjectivity and objectivity: he stretched their opposition to the breaking point. His philosophy was one of absolute responsibility, which Marcuse and others showed to be untenable. On 8/7/2012 9:51 AM, c b wrote: Existentialism consistently proclaims that nothing can be known by man. It does not challenge science in general; it does not raise skeptical objections to its practical or technical uses. It merely denies that there is a science which has the right to say anything about the one essential question: the relation of the individual to life. This is the alleged superiority of existentialism to the old philosophy. “Existential philosophy,” Jaspers says, “would be lost immediately if it started believing again that it knew what man is.” This radical ignorance on principle, which is stressed by Heidegger and Sartre, is one of the main reasons for the overwhelming influence of existentialism. Men who have no prospects themselves find consolation in the doctrine that life in general has no prospects to offer. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/1949/existentialism.htm ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre on Thaxis in the past
[Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre on Thaxis Charles Brown charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Fri Aug 15 10:56:22 MDT 2008 Previous message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marx and individualism Next message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre on Thaxis Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] M-TH: Life Is Beautiful Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us Wed Mar 3 07:07:16 MST 1999 Previous message: M-TH: Re: who reads marx? Next message: M-TH: Outlaw the Nazis and KKK ! Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] I'm thinking that as between Sartre and Althusser, Sartre. Sartre was in the Resistence and in a concentration camp. He was in the struggle for real. The theoretical basis I see for his emphasizing Hegelian subject, early Marx, perhaps reflected below, is that we are no longer in the period when Marxists treat political economy as a process of natural history. Rather we must be activating working class subjects. The beauty in life in the ennui, alienation, unhappiness even as in a Nazi concentration camp ! enough beauty to have enthusiasm for fighting back, as Sartre did. This is the type of activation of the working class subject we need. I wonder if a lot of the other French intellectual confusion at that time was not aimed at covering up Sartre's revolutionary elan and anti-fascism. Charles Brown James Lawler james.lawler at sympatico.ca 02/28/99 05:20PM Here is a review of the film I wrote for the Sartre listserve. Sartre, I think, would say that Marx would agree with this. --Jim Lawler I just saw the amazing film, Life Is Beautiful. Such a title for a film centered on life in a Nazi concentration camp. And yet, it is convincing. Life can be beautiful even in the horrors of the death camp. One of my favorite passages in Sartre's Being and Nothingness is from his discussion of the nature of values. Ordinarily . . . my attitude with respect to values is eminently reassuring. In fact I am involved in a world of values. The anguished apperception of values as sustained in being by my freedom is a secondary and mediated phenomenon. The immediate is the world with its urgency; and in this world where I engage myself, my acts make values spring up like partridges. In the middle of a thick book of disturbing philosophy, Sartre gives us partridges. I thank him for that. Ordinarily, we don't realize that we cause the values to spring up, wonderfully, like partridges. We take our values as reassuring, rigid facts of life. Existential anguish arises when one discovers that the values one accepts only work as values because of one's own free, creative complicity with them. We don't want to have to ask ourselves whether these are the values we want to live by, whether this the kind of life we want to create. There must however be a step, or many steps, beyond the initial experience of anguish. Such a recognition opens up the possibility of creating values freely, like an inspired artist. Guido is the existentialist Master, a person who is able consciously to make the values of his choice spring up like partridges. He is a moral magician, who sees and creates beauty in the worst ugliness. Why does the sign say, No Jews or Dogs Allowed? his five or six-year-old son asks him. Guido, a Jew, tells his Jewish son that nobody likes everybody or everything. The son says that he doesn't like spiders. *There, you see? And I don't like . . . Visigoths! So let's put a sign on our store: No Spiders and Visigoths Allowed.* Those who know Sartre's book may find special significance in Guido's occupation. He is . . . a waiter. Guido's performance of being-a-waiter would make a wonderful film clip to accompany Sartre's description of the waiter whose being a waiter is inevitably a playing at being a waiter. The waiter creates himself as a waiter. But the ordinary, at least Parisian waiter takes his waiter values very seriously, thinking of them as stern facts rather than as creative fictions. Guido creates himself as he goes along, in all the roles he is forced to play as well as the ones he is free to make up himself, as when he plays prince to his beautiful princess. Central to Sartrean existentialism is the idea that individuals freely create their own values. This does not mean that all values are equal. It's not relativism. There are two kinds of freely created values: those that are freely created but in the *bad faith* that they are determined by outside forces--nature, tradition, a god, the Leader. And there are the values created by people who know they are creating values, and whose values must therefore reflect this knowledge. Guido sees and exposes the ridiculousness of the ordinary, conformist majority who have fallen under the self-induced spell of the first type of values. He asks the new employer of a friend what his politics are. The man is momentarily distracted by his
[Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre on Thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre on Thaxis Charles Brown Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:53:53 -0700 Sartre on Thaxis Ralph Dumain I deliberately boycotted Life Is Beautiful because I find the basic premise obscene. Life was and could not be beautiful in a Nazi concentration camp under any circumstances. Find me one Holocaust survivor who would say such a thing. CB: Good point. However, perhaps the extremity of the horror of the concentration camp is used to make some point, like one can make it back even from that extreme or something. I think James Lawler, the philosophy prof , Hegelian and Marxist, who posted that comment might have been thinking in those terms. It's like Nausea you discuss below. Sartre may have been trying to induce a feeling of nausea , of how worthless life can feel...and then somehow existential philosophy seeks to find a way out of that extreme nausea, horror as in a concentration camp or any prison. ^ I would imagine Marx would be pretty nauseated by this as well. Speaking of Nausea, has anyone else found this novel as worthless as I did? CB: I'm sure someone did. You probably have existential ennui. Sartre may have been seeking to induce existential ennui in his readers, psychological unhappiness to a point of nausea, boredem, a sense that one's life is worthless. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Existentialism consistently proclaims that nothing can be known by man
On Aug 7, 2012, at 9:51 AM, c b wrote: Existentialism...denies that there is a science which has the right to say anything about the one essential question: the relation of the individual to life. I would not be too harsh on Lukac's wooden language and thought--in 1949 anything deviating even slightly from Stalin orthodoxy would have put him into the grave beside Lazlo Rajk. But about that one essential question, there is indeed a science which answers that question definitively: ecology. The relation of every living individual to life, the aim and purpose of every life without distinction of species, is to eat and be eaten in submission to the rule of Our Great Common-Cosmic Trogoautoegocrat. Shane Mage -Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? -At supper. -At supper? Where? -Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. (Act 4, Scene 3) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Existentialism : Georg Luk?cs 1949
I kind of liked it when it ended up with the title 'NO SUBJECT', but here it is again with the original thread title (which was a mistake because actually I had meant to reply to the next post from CB, but anyway, thread discipline on this list is overwhelmed by the miracle that there are any threads at all--I think mostly because CB cc's so many lists). CB: thanks. Luckacs analyzes the existentialists as neo-Kantians and subjective idealists, just as I have. He also pins down Sartre's individualist frame of reference. You're welcome. I would have thought, given the timeframe, Sartre's own Critique of Dialectical Reason would be one of the works you want, and then Merleau-Ponty's Adventures of the Dialectic, and then Sartre's Situations too. http://www.egs.edu/library/maurice-merleau-ponty/biography/ excerpt: Merleau-Ponty served in the infantry when in World War II broke out. He began collaborating with his friend and co-founding editor of Les Temps Modernes, Jean-Paul Sartre from 1945 to 1952. However, he became disillusioned with the Korean War, and Sartrian politics, and decided to resign from the editorial board of what would soon become Sartre's journal. The nature of Merleau-Ponty's disagreements with Sartre are formulated in the Adventures of the Dialectic, published in 1955. It is an exhaustive analysis of Sartre's relationship to communism, criticizing his privileging of the subject-object relations in his version of phenomenology. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Guattari's Ecosophy
It's hard to find secondary sources on Guattari that don't discuss Deleuze-Guattari. As far as 'worthless' French philosophers go, he fits well with Lyotard and Baudrillard (and I have to think Hardt-Negri and Zizek as less worthy epigones who have capitalized in terms of popularity, although earlier pre-Hardt Negri makes me want to take that back some). I remember Guattari back in the 70s making much of pirate radio (and others said something of the same about CB radio culture in the US) as precursors to the internet. When I first got to Japan, there was a 'fax culture'; groups would communicate by writing up stuff on their word processor machines (which were much more useful than DOS computers back then) and faxing them out to their groups numbering in the thousands. This is a nice capsule summary of one current in his later works, but part of larger essay (not limited to Guattari) worth reading. http://globalization.icaap.org/content/v2.1/02_peters.html Guattari’S The Three Ecologies Guattari’s achievement is to link three spheres of ecology – environmental, social and mental – into a set of interrelations he calls ecosophy, a term he coins seemingly unaware of the “deep ecology” movement or the ecosophy of Arnold Naess. He writes: …only an ethico-political articulation – which I call ecosophy – between the three ecological registers (the environment, social relations and human subjectivity) would be likely to clarify [the ecological dangers that confront us] (p. 27). His object of criticism is what he calls Integrated World Capitalism (IWC) that, through a series of techno-scientific transformations, has brought us to the brink of ecological disaster, causing a disequilibrium of the world natural environment from which the Earth will take many generations to recover, if at all. Integrated World Capitalism, as Pindar and Sutton (2000: 6) explain, is “delocalized and deterritorialized to such an extent that it is impossible to locate its sources of power”. IWC is now, above all, a fourth-stage capitalism, no longer oriented to producing primary (agricultural), secondary (manufacturing), or tertiary (services), but now oriented to the production of “signs, syntax, and … subjectivity” (p. 47). Part of Guattari’s thesis is that the expansion in communications technology, and, in particular, the development of world telecommunications, has served to shape a new type of passive subjectivity, saturating the unconscious in conformity with global market forces. IWC, thus, poses a direct threat to the environment in ways that are now all too familiar to us – pollution of all forms, extinction and depletion of species with the consequent reduction of biodiversity etc. Less often are we alerted to the dimension of social ecology and its practical politics. What is not often recognized, if at all, is what Guattari calls mental ecology: both how the structures of human subjectivity to which it refers, like a rare species, is also under treat of extinction and how it underwrites an understanding of environmental and social ecology. It is in the realm of understanding human subjectivity in ecological terms that Guattari has most to offer. In this recognition of the “ecology of mind” he is strongly influenced by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, especially his Steps Towards the Ecology of Mind (1972).11 Indeed, Guattari (2000: 27) begins with a quotation from Bateson’s essay “Pathologies of Epistemology” from that same collection of essays: “There is an ecology of bad ideas, just as there is an ecology of weeds”. The importance of Bateson’s argument, as the translators’ note clarifies (see fn 1, p. 70), is in criticising the dominant “epistemological fallacy” in Western thinking that the unit of survival, in the bio-taxonomy, is the individual, family line, subspecies or species, when the unit of survival is “organism plus environment”. The choice of the wrong unit leads to an epistemological error that propagates itself, multiplying and mutating, as a basic characteristic of the thought-system of which it is a part. The hierarchy of taxa leads to a conception of species against species, Man against Nature – a view that has been reinforced by various ideologies and movements, including Romanticism. By contrast, according to Bateson: we now see a different hierarchy of units – gene-in-organism, organism-in-environment, ecosystem, etc. Ecology, in the widest sense, turns out to be the study of the interaction and survival of ideas and programs (i.e., differences, complexes of differences, etc.) in circuits (Bateson, 1972: 484, cited in Guattari, 2000; 70). Thus, for Guattari we must conceive of ecology as a realm encompassing the environmental, the social and the mental (the complex, environment-social-mental). His ecosophical perspective of subjectivity, in large part, is a product of his Lacanian training, his experience as a working psychoanalyst and his attempt to reorient Freudianism towards the
